A blog about knitting and the life that happens in between the stitches

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Long time no post

I know, I know, long time no post.

No excuses.

But . . .

Late July to November is "crush season" if you live with a wine guy. He works. I work, kids finish up their camps and start school (one in high school, one in first grade--OY!). The Jewish holidays come, and come, and come. And I knit. So the time for blogging is . . .when???

A lot of life has happened between the needles.

I took the girlz on a mini-vacation to Grandma's house in the L.A. area. The highlight of our trip, for the littlest one and me was a trip to the new Getty Museum. If you are in the L.A. area and sick of emptying your wallet for various attractions, this has to be the best bargain south of the North Pole. For the price of parking your car (about $8), everyone you can stuff in your car can get into the museum all day. There is so much to see and do, surrounded by incredible architechture and views in addition to the breathtaking and illuminating artwork. If I lived down there, I would spend every free moment at the Getty.

JB and I love the Impressionists, and they have a lovely gallery filled with impressionist paintings, heavy on the Monet (but only one of the Giverney paintings, which have become a bit cliche' for me). Each Monet is hung next to another artist's painting of similar subject, so that you can compare and contrast styles of Monet's contemporaries. It was a wonderful way to see them.

Shortly after our return, E started high school with much tepidation, but it has gone very well. For the most part she has wonderful teachers, and she's settled in with her group of friends and activities.

A week later, JB started 1st grade. She was very fortunate to have her kindergarten teacher move up to first grade with the entire class, and so that has been a smooth and easy transition. Not only that, but she entered first grade as a fluent reader, reading well above her grade level. She is so excited, she cannot get enough to read. She did it all herself, and it was excitinng to see.

Harvest started in the August heat, fast and furious for two weeks, and then we had some cool weather and things slowed down to a dull roar. I think it's been a nice pace this year. Some years, harvest is very late, and very fast in a snap of very hot weather. Some years, harvest is very slow--the weather never gets that warm and it goes on forever. Growers wait until afternoon to pick to get the sugar levels of the grapes as high as possible, so the trucks come in the late afternoon and evening and I never see my husband. This year it has been a very nice pace, the grapes come early in the day for the most part, and WG actually gets home for dinner (albeit a very late dinner some nights).

Work has been crazy busy for me, especially with all the missed time for our mini vacation, doctor trips for JB and for me, holidays, high holy days, etc. Many evenings I've brought home work and stayed up waaaay to late doing it.

Last weekend, WG and I attended my 30th high school reunion. Boy was that weird!

But I have managed to knit.

One Everlasting Bagstopper (Knitty.com, Summer 2007) finished.

And another started.

Work continues, sporadically on the MS3. I waited a long time to decide if I wanted to do the wing.

I made a mistake a few rows back, and I haven't tinked back, so it's just waiting right now.

Oh, I started a charity knitting group--and this was my first project:

This is the Haiku Sweater from Knitty.com. I think it's easier and faster than the 5 hour Baby Sweater. I still need to sew on two buttons. I got some new gadgets!I have fallen in love with Clover markers that are like safety pins only plastic. They are a great help on he wing portion of the MS3, since the center stitch moves. I can move the markers easily, and they don't tarnish like coilless safety pins.And, yes, those are the new Knit Picks Harmony Options Needles. They took a wonderful product and made it better! I am so impressed that they made the harmony set fit the basic Options cables and accessories. I would have been very upset if I had to buy a whole new thing. I can buy the needles pair by pair and gradually add it to my set. The needles are beautiful to look at, lightweight, sharp, and smooth. They are bliss to knit with. My reunion was in the Monterey area. We stayed with Susan in the woods in Carmel--it was lovely. WG picked up Susan's Magic 8 Ball and asked the question "will we visit a yarn store today?" The answer "Without a Doubt". LOL! So we just HAD to visit Monarch Knits in Pacific Grove, which is one of my all-time favorite not so LYS. I got a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarns and now I'm knitting this:It's Judy Gibson's "You're Putting me On" generic sock (http://tiajudy.com/soxform.htm ) adapted for Magic Loop. What a great pattern!I may not have been doing my blog, but I've been reading others, and posting comments. Ryan called me her ESBFF-http://www.nwkniterati.com/movabletype/archives/MossyCottage/001819.html-OMG, that's like a celebrity!!!!! I'm so excited ;o)And my number came up on Ravelry. Look for me there as--surprise-- Janknitz.It will take some time to get up and going there, but what fun it will be!I'll try to post more frequently, promise!P.S. Please forgive the photos. My hard drive died and terrible death. I have a new hard drive, and most of my stuff was backed up, but not the photo editing program I used to use. So these photos are unedited and really NEED editing. My apologies!